Nominet rides election storm

UK registry owner Nominet has dismissed requests for a re-election of two of its Board members, announcing that the two incumbents, Gordon Dick and Fay Howard, would return to their positions.

Controversy hit the election process when it was revealed that a miscalculation in members' voting rights had only been noticed at the last minute, and only after postal votes and proxy voting deadlines had struck. Two of the six candidates publicly asked for a revote, claiming that they had been unfairly discriminated against.

After the complaints, Nominet apologised and announced it would leave the decision in the hands of its independent polling company, Popularis. Announcing the results, Popularis said that since the vote was properly conducted and the votes cast have been calculated correctly, a re-run was not required.

Popularis noted it had received two complaints from two of the candidates but pointed out that it had not received a complaint from a Nominet member saying it would have behaved differently had it been aware of the change in voting rights.

Its argument is somewhat Orwellian: "It would be unfair to penalise or give unfair advantage to any member in determining the outcome of the elections based on what all now accept was incorrect information," read a statement. "How candidates canvas for votes is a matter for them, and is not contained within any procedural requirements determined by Nominet."

As it turned out the two candidates that complained - both of which Nominet would not have been overjoyed to have seen on the Board since one represents the controversial issue of domainers and the other was asking for a price reduction in Nominet's fees - would most likely not have won. But with a very poor turnout of just nine percent of members, it is clear that a well-organised campaign in the future could see a significant shake-up of the status quo.®